<p>To add to the list for someone sharing the criterion of LeftyLou’s daughter: Julliard is obvious, and the New School, depending on the school (and its housing is all over the city).</p>
<p>D is a rising senior. We visited Northwestern this weekend. She said if all else were equal if she were accepted she would choose NW because she loves the color purple. Of course nothing is equal.</p>
<p>Not wanting red could be an advantage when doing laundry- pink stuff, guys? </p>
<p>Squirrels may be rodents but they don’t typically try to invade the indoors and are definitely cute, even when they hog the sunflower feeder.</p>
<p>Pretty campus and being close to home but not in hometown. After it has worked for her perfectly, she considered location very high on her priority list while choosing Med. School also.</p>
<p>My oldest, an art major, drove me crazy by ruling out schools as soon as we walked on campus due to the shape of the buildings, ie if a campus consisted of mainly square and unadorned buildings, it was immediately taken off the list. Then we had to visit the art building, bonus points if it was in an unique location; one school had their main art studio in an old Coke bottling plant, another had little funky outdoor semiprivate studios for upper-class art students. One of her pet peeves was student guides who would say things similar to “see that big square building over there, that’s the library” and my child would lean to me and whisper, “can’t they tell that is a rectangle or whatever building?” Also the buildings couldn’t all be oriented the same way, she wasn’t a fan of the central common with the buildings around it, or the main boulevard with buildings all facing front. </p>
<p>Son, pretty much beyond his program, all that mattered was that he could do theater or improv without taking classes in those fields.</p>
<p>Where did your eldest end up? That sounds interesting. </p>
<p>Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC</p>
<p>For me, there’s a lot of non-academic stuff that matters, even though academics are my main focus.
-Has to have beautiful green spaces, outdoors, nature stuff to relax on campus
-the buildings have to look nice. Architecture is actually something that seems to make a difference to me, which I didn’t even think about.
-Has to have my denomination church nearby and a horse barn so I can still ride during college. Having an IEA team is a plus!
-guaranteed on campus housing for freshman, with the option for all 4 years.
-a/c and a wide variety of food with the meal plan.</p>
<p>BeaMom, have you looked at Santa Clara University in San Jose? It is urban, close to San Francisco, about 5 - 9K students, and very high quality. I don’t know anything about theater there. </p>
<p>When we visited, I was impressed by the fairly extensive Jewish presence in this Jesuit school. We went to several Jesuit campuses on our tours, and it was absolutely fascinating how they have all evolved differently over time in terms of their spiritual roots. One, whose name I will not mention as I continue to hope it was an anomaly of the leader of the information session, was openly patronizing of anyone who would be interested in worshiping in any tradition. i was not the only parent in the audience who nearly fell off my chair. One (Boston College) said that every student had to take 3 courses in some type of theology, and said that there were a huge number available including some that I wanted to sign up for that day! Many were applicable to the Jewish faith. Santa Clara talked about their strong commitment to service (required for every professor) and to the support of every faith tradition. There was a ethics center on campus donated and supported by a Jewish family: every major is required to take an ethics course designed for their major. </p>
<p>I have to tell you a story about this school that this audience may enjoy. We visited this school early in the exploration process. At that point, SCU met every single criterion, but DD was adamant that she didn’t like it’s “feel” on paper (much later, she admitted that San Jose didn’t sound sexy enough). She REFUSED to even consider it. We had a rule that if we were flying somewhere to visit, she had to tour three schools, so she extremely reluctantly agreed to look at it, grumbling all the way to the gate. As soon as she hit the gate, she was blown away at its beauty. We were late, so the tour guide knew nothing of her interests. However, if I had given him cue cards he could not have presented the school in a more daughter-centric way. For once in my life, I kept my mouth CLOSED and avoided eye contact at all costs. When we got in the car, I pulled out my standard notebook so she could spit out her pros and cons before she forgot them. The first thing she said was “MOM! I SO wanted to hate this school because you pushed it SO HARD. And darn it - it is now my first choice.” LOL. In the end, she picked a different school, but it was one of my favorite memories of our college tour.</p>
<p>intparent - “BYOC” - I’m still laughing! </p>
<p>Seriously, I’m not even going to mention the term “cat dorm” to my son - all other criteria would fly out the window and we would be on an eternal search for colleges teeming with cuddly felines. (Why can’t he like squirrels??)</p>
<p>I mentioned the cat dorm to my 2 D’s-one loves them and has one at her father’s, the other is allergic. The one was ready to start the transfer process then and there (not really, but it was the reaction I’d have expected). The other frowned and said, “Well, THAT’S a building I’ll never be able to set foot in!” as she shuddered. That would be a trip to urgent care for sure. It was kind of funny.</p>
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<p>The CEO of any company exercises control over everyone, from the janitors to the vice-president. </p>
<p>So yeah, CEOs are some leaders. Janitor-quality leadership, I might say.</p>
<p>We are doing a Bay Area visit this fall, somehow. And we do have a friend there. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll add it to the list. Please tell me that the school you heard about isn’t Seattle U, on paper that’s first on my daughter’s list!</p>
<p>Zip Cars. Expresso machines.</p>
<p>Interesting comment above about the lack of smart boards. My daughter just visited Brown for a conference, and she noticed that too. She said they are still using overhead projectors there, and she did not see any smart boards. They have them at her high school. Some Professors may prefer chalk boards, but given the price tag of an education at these Ivies, it was surprising that a Smart Board was not an option.</p>
<p>* Professors may prefer chalk boards, but given the price tag of an education at these Ivies, it was surprising that a Smart Board was not an option.*</p>
<p>And yet they still have families around the world banging on their doors for the privilege of paying $50,000 a year to be educated there anyway.;)</p>
<p>I wonder if all the school boards telling taxpayers they can’t educate their little darlings without cutting edge technology think that, they are sheep?</p>
<p>In my city, we’ve seen board members or even superintendents benefit financially from outside contracts.
Slimy.</p>
<p>DD prefers a higher ratio of boys to girls, which is tough to find. Her high school is currently 40/60 boys outnumbering girls. I don’t think she’ll find those odds in college.</p>
<p>Agentninetynine, she can easily find great ratios at some of the schools specializing in STEM disciplines. Though of course you’ve heard the saying, “the odds are good, but the goods are odd!”</p>
<p>Musts:
- Good vegetarian food
- High medical school acceptance rate/good pre-med program
- LAC</p>
<p>Things I would like to have, but are not necessarily a deal breaker:
- Has a quidditch team
- Neuroscience major
- Large nerd population
- Near a large city, but not actually in one</p>